Largest political party in Denmark calls for crackdown on Muslim immigration

Venstre spokeswoman Inger Støjberg called for a crackdown on Muslim immigration.

Venstre is a centrist political party and the largest party in Denmark. They are known as the “Liberal Party” in English. It holds 47 seats of the Danish parliament.

Denmark already has the strictest immigration laws of any EU country thanks to the Danish People’s Party [DF], which has 22 seats. For years the DF has acted as a kingmaker in parliament. They are part of a ruling coalition with Venstre and other smaller conservative and centrist parties. The DF has forced the rest of the coalition to back anti-immigration legislation in exchange for its support for other types of legislation.

The DF is denounced in the media as “racist.” They received 26.6% of the Danish seats in the last EU election, coming in first place. Yet even after coming in first place, their first act was to self-deprecate to the media. The defected from the EU grouping led by UKIP to the neo-conservative Tory party. This was prove to the media they weren’t “racist.”

However, there is new evidence that the tide is turning fast. Now the official spokewoman for Venstre is calling for a crackdown on Muslim immigration.

Denmark’s largest opposition party, Venstre, is calling for the nation to differentiate its immigration policies based on religion.

Venstre’s political spokeswoman Inger Støjberg wrote an op-ed published in Berlingske on Monday in which she said that it should be more difficult for non-Western immigrants with Muslim backgrounds to come to Denmark.

“It is not necessary to set the same requirements for everyone, because as a general rule there is a big difference in the ability and will to integrate between a Christian American or Swede and a Muslim Somali or Pakistani,” she wrote.

Støjberg said it was important to talk frankly about immigration issues.

“To say it directly, it is primarily Muslim immigrants who do not value democracy and freedom. In certain environments, they directly oppose it,” she wrote. “Too many non-Western immigrants with Muslim backgrounds do not want our freedom-orientated society model.”

Støjberg suggested that Denmark should adopt an immigration approach that makes it easier for Westerners and harder for Muslims.

“In the future we should make it easier for those who traditionally can and will integrate to come to Denmark, while we make it more difficult for those who don’t have the ability or the will,” she wrote.

Støjberg also pointed toward the incendiary remarks by an Aarhus-based imam as evidence that “too many Muslims in Denmark practise a medieval interpretation of the Koran and it prohibits them from being a part of normal Danish life.”

Her remarks quickly created a stir amongst the other political parties.

“If Venstre has now finally understood the need to differentiate between immigrants and limit non-Western immigration, then we are getting closer to each other,” DF’s Martin Henriksen wrote in a press release.